South Korea wants to strike a controversial agreement with the US that will allow Seoul to extend the range of its ballistic missiles to counter the threat of a nuclear-armed North Korea.
President Lee Myung-bak said yesterday it was no longer acceptable that South Korea limited its missiles to a range of 300km while North Korea was poised to test a rocket next month with a range estimated at more than 3,000km. Seoul restricts its firepower under a 2001 memorandum of understanding with Washington.
“The 300km [range] was set many years ago on the assumption fighting would happen around the demilitarised zone,” Mr Lee said, referring to the armistice line drawn up after the end of the Korean war in 1953. South Korea now faced “new needs in its defence environment”, he added.